This came to me from a reader named Brian David Mannix…
I have never written you before either electronically or conventionally, but I am doing so now because I need to express my feelings about various DC Comics characters and it would really be wonderful if someone would "listen." I quit reading your website a year or two ago because it seemed like the only time you mentioned comics was when someone in the comics industry passed away and I got tired of you "dumping" on President Trump. I don't like a lot of things about our president either, but it just got kind of boring reading about how allegedly horrible he was/is.
I guess this isn't the best way to begin a missive in which I ask you for a favor, but those are my honest feelings. I am not trying to be rude or hurtful, just honest. We people with Asperger Syndrome are not known for our diplomacy or our empathy, but I am not attempting to "tell you off." I have typed several messages to the DC Comics' website contact feature, but have not yet heard back from anyone. I threatened to keep e-mailing them until I got a response, just like Marty Pasko did with "snail" mail back in the 70s, but I guess they weren't very impressed. The people in charge may be too young to even know who Marty Pasko is. I have read, I think in the late, lamented Amazing Heroes, that Mr. Pasko wrote DC so often with so many complaints of (hopefully constructive) criticism, that he came to be known as "Pesky Pasko."
I often joke that I am in a minority; I'm a comic-book fan; but even within that minority I'm in a minority, because most of my favorite comic-book characters are not superheroes. The DC Universe has many fascinating characters who are not superheroes (or supervillains)! And no, I do not mean non-powered but costumed characters like Batman. As far as I concerned, Batman and his ilk are superheroes or supervillains because they wear funny (stupid?) costumes.
One of the best comic-book stories I have ever read featured Slam Bradley in "The 'Too Many Cooks…' Caper." It was in the landmark 500th issue of Detective Comics which was published in late 1980. The story also starred Mysto, Jason Bard, Roy Raymond, Captain Compass, Pow Wow Smith, and The Human Target. In a better world, characters like that would be the stars of a comic-book named Detective Comics and not some freak in a Halloween costume.
How about a team-up between Captain Compass and the Sea Devils? And if the crybabies can't live without their precious superheroes, they could throw in Aquaman. I have a copy of the Showcase Presents black-and-white trade paperback that DC published a few years ago, and my least favorite feature in it is The Flash. I like that feature okay, but I would much rather read about firefighters, frogmen, animals, Lois Lane, and The Challengers of the Unknown, which were some of the other features in the first 20-odd issues of the original Showcase from the 1950s. I really am in a minority, am I not?
The community computer I am using to type this just told me that I have less than ten minutes before it shuts down, so I will close this e-missive for now. Thank you for listening!
Let you in on a secret, Brian. I think most folks who write comic books would much rather write about folks with no special powers. For one thing, you can write about human emotions and themes that relate to your own world more directly. My own dreams and hopes and feelings would be quite different if I came from another planet and could bench-press a Chevrolet.
Secondly, stories would be easier and neater if we didn't have to keep coming up with menaces that could threaten people with superhuman abilities. When you're writing about characters with the power to save the universe, you have to keep coming up with storylines that threaten the destruction of the universe.
There's also the mix-and-match problem. I like a lot of Superman stories and I like a lot of Batman stories but I can't think of one story I ever really liked with both of them in major roles. Those just get too contrived because any villain who's powerful enough to give Superman a fight would be powerful enough to kill Batman in two seconds. Also, there's a wide discrepancy in the bravery of those two heroes. For Batman, facing down a band of armed gunmen is risking his life. For Superman, it's a yawn.
I don't think they go together but the readership loves to see them in the same comic. The readership also loves its superfolks. DC and Marvel will start doing more comics about characters like Slam Bradley when there's the slightest evidence people will buy them. At the moment, I don't believe there is. It's not all that different from back in 1990 when someone at Marvel asked me to come up with a book that had not a single super-powered or costumed character in it. You can read about that unhappy experience here.
Frankly, I think you're wasting your time lobbying DC or Marvel or any of the major publishers about this. If you want to expend some energy on this cause, try going to your local comic book shop and ask them how they'd feel about ordering and promoting the kind of comic you want to see. They'd probably order really low unless it was done by some superstar writer and artist. Then ask them how many copies they'd order if that same superstar writer and artist did a new super-hero team or something full of monsters and the possible destruction of our Solar System. If you can't convince the folks at your local comic shop, you probably can't convince someone at Marvel or DC.
And if you do convince them, please let me know. I have several ideas for comics of the sort that I'd love to do.